Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen

Roald Amundsen

 

Roald Amundsen, was born on 16 July 1872 at Borge, near Oslo. According to his family expectations he should dedicate himself to the medical studies, but he joined the Navy and the case brought him, as second in command, on board the “Belgica”, together with the Belgian biologist Adrien de Gerlache, forced by the ice to spend the winter on the ship at the Antarctic Peninsula.
The experience that Amundsen got from this trip, allowed him to acquire a sufficient self-confidence to face the challenge that fascinated all sailers since 300 years: the North West Passage. The explorers were aware of the existence of a corridor linking Europe to Asia, north of the North American continent, but any ship was ever able to completely sail it. Amundsen bought a very robust ship weighting 45 tonnes, the Gjoa, with sails and an engine of 13 horses. In 1903 the “Gjoa” left the fjord of Oslo with its crew of 6 men ready to open the icy waters of the North West Passage.
The expedition was successful and in August 1906 “Gjoa” sailed out of the passage. During the navigation the crew had also collected a large amount of scientific data, the most important of which were related to the terrestrial magnetism and also recorded the location of the magnetic North Pole. In addition, this expedition had collected ethnographic material about the Inuit.
In August Amundsen sailed south on board the “Fram”, which Nansen had made available. At that time in order to cross the Bering Strait the ships were forced to double Cape Horn. That is why nobody suspected any change of plan while the “Fram” proceeded south.
When the ship was docking at Madeira, Amundsen informed the members of the expedition that they were sailing southward, not northward. A telegram was sent to Scott with the news that the Norwegian expedition was heading for the Antarctic. A race to the death that continues to fascinate today.
Amundsen placed his base camp in the Bay of Whales, this location is closer to the South Pole than the departure point of Scott, the McMurdo Sound. Despite this apparent advantage the area between the Bay of Whales and the Pole was unknown, while Scott would follow a route mapped out in 1908 by his compatriot Shackleton. On 19 October 1911 Amundsen left the base camp with his four companions, four sledges and 52 dogs. The mission of Amundsen had one goal: reach the Pole, as fast as possible. Two months after his goal was reached, five weeks before Scott and his men reached the Pole exhausted to find the flag and tent of Amundsen.
On 14 December 1911 the Norwegian flag waved at the South Pole. The Norwegian crew had crossed the dangerous Ross ice shelf to reach the foot of a mountain range covered by glaciers. Continue seemed extremely risky, but because of their expertise and a good dose of luck, the men managed to overcome the glacier Heiberg, to cross the mountain range and reach the plateau that would have brought them to the Pole.
Upon his return to Europe, Amundsen, paid all its debts and soon organized new voyages.
From 1922 to 1924 drifted with the ship “Maud” the North East Passage.
Later in 1925, along with the American Ellesworth, tryed to reach the North Pole aboard two aircraft, the N24 and the N25. The planes crashed on the ice at latitude 87.83 degrees N, but the crew managed to repair one of the two planes and three weeks after they returned to Svalbard.
In 1926, along with Nobile and Ellsworth fly over the North Pole with the airship “Norge” flying from Svalbard to Alaska. This expedition flew over unknown territories, thus collecting the last information that were missing to complete the world map. After the trip with the airship Norge, the two explorers not turn over the floor, but when Nobile, after reaching the North Pole, crashed on the pack with the airship Italy, Roald Amundsen immediately offer his help as part of a rescue team. He took off from Tromsø on June 17 1928 on board the Latham 47, a plane made available by the French Government. Together with him were missing all the crew members. A few months later was found a wreck of his airplane on the north coast of northern Norway. More recently, in 2003, another part of the aircraft was found in a hut on the Island Edgeøya, Svalbard.

BIOGRAPHY curated by Piero Bosco

 

Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton

Ernest Shackleton

 

Ernest grew up in a very large family, he had two brothers and eight sisters, but this for him has never meant lack of food or lack of a comfortable home.
Shackleton was bored by the school and did not follow the advises of his father who wanted him to follow in the medical profession. He decided that he wanted to live in the sea and joined the Navy at the age of fourteen years, the minimum limit for entry.
Now that he finally achieved his goal, Shackleton suddenly begun to work hardly.
On 13 September 1900 Shackleton had asked to participate as a volunteer at the English Antarctic Expedition that was organized by Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society. Lieutenant Robert F. Scott, then famous explorer, had been appointed to command the expedition. The expedition set sail from ‘England on August 6 1901, aboard the Discovery, steamy wooden boat. For that time was the best organized expedition ventured to Antarctic. In mid-February 1902, Scott had established the winter quarter at Hut Point on ‘Ross Island. With Shackleton as editor, the expedition has also published the very first magazine of Antarctic, the South Polar Times. On 2 November 1902 Scott left for the South Pole with his scientist Dr Edward Wilson, Shackleton, 19 dogs and 5 sledges. Despite the initial optimism the harsh reality soon took the upper hand. The lack of experience in ski and sled dogs was fatal and the results were very little. Only their physical power allow them to reach 82.16 ° S before turning back. In fact, only Scott and Wilson reached this point, Shackleton was forced to stay behind with dogs.
Although it had been treated as an invalid by Scott, Shackleton decided that it would be  back in Antarctic one day. He did it in 1908. Meanwhile, after his return from the Discovery expedition, Shackleton was married and fathered for the first time. The British Antarctica Expedition left Lyttleton, New Zealand, in the New Year Day of 1908, on board the Nimrod. The small whaler, reached the Ross Ice Shelf in January 1908. Shackleton discovered the Beardmore glacier, named in honor of the sponsor of the expedition and reached 88.23 ° S on the Antarctic Plateau on January 9 1909. He also sent expeditions that have reached the south magnetic pole and the top of Mount Erebus. On his return to England, he became a hero and received numerous awards from different geographical societies.
In 1914, after the Pole was conquered by Roald Amundsen in 1911, Shackleton embarked on a new challenge, wanted to cross the continent on foot, from the Wedell Sea to the Ross Sea.
Leaving the South Georgia in December 1914, the Endurance made his course southward through the pack until it was no longer able to continue and was finally trapped in the ice where he remained for nearly two years in one of the most hostile environments on earth. When the Endurance sanked cause of the ice pressure, Shackleton using sledges and boats first reached Elephant Island in April 15 1916 and then South Georgia on August 30, for a total of about a thousand miles. He then completed the rescue operation of its men who were awaiting rescue in the Ross Sea. Not one man was lost and Shackleton gained the respect and admiration of all his crew.
Returned home he made many conferences abot the Endurance expedition but not brought many economic benefits.
But suddendly in 1921, Shackleton had the opportunity of another Antarctic expedition. Its aim was to circumnavigate the Antarctic continent from the sea, but the plans were  brutally interrupted on January 5 1922, when Shackleton died of a heart attack aboard his ship, the Quest, while it was anchored off the coast of South Georgia near the South Sandwichs. His body was brought to England, but his widow has requested that the burial took place at Grytviken in South Georgia, where Shackleton was buried on March 5 1922.

BIOGRAPHY curated by Piero Bosco

 

Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

Robert Falcon Scott

 

British naval officer and explorer joined the Royal Navy at 14 years. In 1900 he was the commander of the English Antarctic Expedition. His travel companion was Ernst Shackleton. After leaving England in 1901, Scott placed the base camp on the shores of McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. He explored the eastern part of the Ross Ice Shelf and the named the Edward VII peninsula. He in the company of Wilson and Shackleton has tried to reach the South Pole. They failed but reached the southernmost latitude ever, about 82 ° S. The failure of this attempt was largely due to a lack of experience of the participants in the use of sled dogs and lack of experience in the behaviour necessary in extreme environments such as Antarctica. The expedition returned in 1904.
In 1910 Scott organized a second expedition to Antarctica with the goal of being the first man to reach the South Pole. The ship Terra Nova sailed from England on 1 June. He again reached McMurdo Sound. Immediately it was clear to Scott that the South Pole would be a kind of race with the Norwegian Roald Amundsen. Both expeditions departed in 1911 from their base camps. But while Amundsen and his four companions were traveling with ski and sled dogs, Scott used Manchurian ponies and snowmobiles that soon proved to be defective, and sled dogs that nobody knew how manage. The party of four companions began a march of 2964 km. Scott reached the South Pole on January 18 1912, there he found the tent and flag left by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen, who had reached the goal 5 weeks earlier. The return trip was a tragedy and ended with the deaths of all participants. The officer Edgar Evans died after a fall, Captain Lawrence Oates sacrificed his life, hoping thus to save his comrades, Henry Bowers, Dr Edward Wilson, and Scott perished of scurvy and starvation on March 29 1912, just 18 km from a deposit. Their bodies, along with valuable documents and samples left by Scott in his tent, were found by a rescue team about 8 months later.

BIOGRAPHY curated by Piero Bosco